19 August 2015 4:33 PM

Yes, East Germany was terrible. But Was it a Joke or a Warning?

Normal respectable people have almost no idea of the parallel world in which much of the British Left actually live, or certainly used to live. It came as something of a surprise to me after I joined the International Socialists in the late 1960s and was slowly drawn into this strange zone.

Much of this came back to me at the weekend when I read the (to me) hilarious accounts of Jeremy Corbyn’s dinners of cold baked beans, and his austere, serious-minded holidays, spent chugging about on Warsaw Pact motorbikes. The man’s an obvious Roundhead, left over from the New Model Army, with all the unenviable virtues - and even more unenviable disadvantages - of those ferocious and magnificent old soldiers for righteousness.

I know nothing more about the Corbyns than has been published, and have never been invited round for cold beans or hot ones. But the glimpse of his life summoned from my memory a whole world . Its boundaries were marked by great mounds of unsold left-wing papers under the bed, posters for forgotten demonstrations flopping off the walls, reefs and mountain-ranges of undistributed leaflets, surmounted with unfinished, rather horrible meals; more often than not, a neglected lawn and a feeling of perpetual hurry, to a meeting, to a demonstration, to one of the hundreds of gatherings and episodes which the Left-wing faith demands of its scrawny, ill-dressed devotees. You might meet people who had lived in East Berlin or still had friends there, or who had couriered gold and messages for the Comintern. Sometimes in the midst of this there might also be quite a bit of unconventional sex going on (by the standards of the 1960s, though rather restrained now) . In some cases there might also be quite a bit of drink taken, though abstention wouldn’t be frowned on, and in the more exotic, studenty outfits, drugs as well.

I realise that most normal people would be genuinely amazed by this way of life, this milieu in which people don't believe what everyone believes or behave as everyone behaves.

I cannot tell from how deep into this world Mr Corbyn comes. Some sort of clue has been given by various profiles, which have mentioned Mr Corbyn's even more nonconformist brother, the weather forecaster and defiantly anti-warmist Piers, who is sensibly unconvinced by the view that climate change is man-made, an unusual position on the Left. ( I had always assumed they were related, but had never known whom to ask. They definitely are).

Simon Hattenstone, in the Guardian, was one of several reporters who showed that he wasn’t very versed in the language of the Left when he recounted that ‘Corbyn grew up in a politicised family in Shropshire. "Mum and Dad met campaigning on the Spanish civil war. Both were active peace campaigners."'

Um. This is mildly puzzling on the face of it. Though the Corbyn parents are (and what a shame this is) no longer with us and cannot be asked, I don’t think anybody much campaigned for ‘peace’ in the Spanish Civil War. In fact a lot of previously left-wing pacifists (George Orwell among them) abandoned their pacifism about that time. The English left, to a man and woman, were for the Republic and against Franco, and wanted the Republic to win. This couldn't be done through peace. Many went there and proved it with their lives. Others returned wounded and in some cases crippled for life. Such people could still be found in Left-wing London in the 1960s and 1970s, still vigorous and clear-minded.

What about ‘peace campaigning’? Well, sometimes the term is misleading. In the post-1945 world, it generally meant campaigning against *Western* nuclear weapons, not Eastern ones.

This was not least because those who campaigned against Soviet nuclear weapons, in the only places where it mattered, did not usually stay at liberty for very long. Their ideas were greeted with scorn as well as hostility, especially by those Communist governments who were delighted by 'peace' campaigns in NATO countries. Indeed, some of the best pro-deterrence propaganda I have ever seen was posted up in East Berlin department stores in the winter of, I think, 1983 – a cartoon hedgehog wisely refusing a Fox’s smiling suggestion that he abandon his prickles, until the Fox has agreed to have his teeth removed. The same message, less elegantly expressed, was to be found as late as 1991 on banners on the main street of the secret city of Kurchatovsk in Kazakhstan, built by Beria as the headquarters of the USSR’s H-Bomb project.

This ‘peace campaigning’ in Britain took place mainly in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, founded in 1957. I note that what I used to know as ‘the CND symbol’ (brilliantly invented by the English artist Gerald Holtom from the combined semaphore signs for ‘N’ and ‘D’ ) is now known as the ‘peace symbol’. This is a rather broader claim, which might be made for a number of other organisations and movements. If CND had succeeded in its aims, I am not by any means sure that peace would have been the outcome.

Anyway, in this world, life looked very different from most people’s. Irish nationalism was a sort of ally, with varying degrees of reservations. Israel was wrong and the 'Palestinians' were right. Any strike was good. The armed forces were suspect rather than a source of pride. There was, even among Trotskyists supposedly disenchanted with the USSR, an openness to the Socialist world, especially Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Eastern Europe, ruled by men in suits all too like our own governments and plainly unromantic, tended to be only for the Communists.

From her girlhood, she lived in this odd backwards-facing world in which every loyalty was a disloyalty, and the other way round.

The book (sometimes very funny, sometimes desperately embarrassing and sad, always absorbing and moving) is full of her ineradicable love for her batty, determined Stalinist mother. That mother is a descendant of other Communists, who counted it a betrayal to abandon her earthly faith just because everyone else was leaving and because the USSR kept invading other people’s countries with tanks. I do have a sort of admiration for this indomitable wrongness, never forgetting my own seduction, a conscious rejection and betrayal of everything I had ever been brought up to believe, and so in some ways worse than a false belief I had been born into and nurtured with.

East Germany, of all places, became the refuge of this intense and loopy two-person family, who spent most of the year failing to sell the Communist ‘Morning Star’ to the hostile and baffled people of Tamworth. In Potsdam and East Berlin they were suddenly normal and welcome for a few sunny weeks. Then they had to slog back to Staffordshire and be jeered at and suspected, outcasts for the rest of the year.

Of course, it was not an exact reflection, one world the mirror-image of the other. There was one vital difference. During my many wanderings round the Communist world from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, I would occasionally fall into a feeling of normality. Look, there was food, there was beer, there were normal-looking people going about normal-looking tasks. And then there would be an idol of Lenin, that merciless murderer, or the urgent need to hush one’s voice while speaking, or a banner proclaiming a naked lie, or a parade of tanks with their barrels pointing West, restrained ultimately by the nuclear weapons that CND and the ‘peace’ movement wanted to abolish.

Or one might glimpse , as one walked round East Berlin, granite-faced detachments of the Feliks Dzerzhinski (I won’t attempt the German spelling) Regiment, named after the bloodthirsty founder of the KGB. They had a marching chant whose chorus went ‘Feliks! Dzerzhinski!...You have taught us how to hate!!!” The final word in German was ‘Hass!!!’ which was enunciated with a prolonged and menacing hiss. These were the palace guard of the ‘Socialist Unity Party’, loyal Marxist-Leninists ready to defend Communism to the end if required . They never were required, though I suspect that if the East German leadership had decided to try the Tiananmen Square route out of trouble in 1989, it would have been the Feliks Dzerzhinski boys who would have machine-gunned the crowds in Leipzig. But those leaders – who lived in Western comfort in a compound at Wandlitz, north of Berlin, which was fenced off from their own country much as their own country was fenced off from the West – correctly decided it was wiser just to give in.

Jo McMillan, not unreasonably, did not observe this sort of thing, or the Stasi secret police ( at least as a named organisation, for those who lived under its gaze were wiser not to name it) , in her childhood and teenage visits. But lurking in her story are brief flashes of the true, horrible and sinister characteristics of the ‘German Democratic Republic’, like some deadly alligator glimpsed for the occasional moment among waterweeds, then invisible again, then a little closer. You will find these for yourself if and when you read it, and I urge you to. I think it is enough to say that her teenage East German friend, an elusive but very credible character in the book, who jeers at the appalling dress sense of Western communists, whose clothes, she says, look as if they have already been worn by at least two other people of entirely different shapes, has a better idea of what is going on this poisoned paradise than the narrator does, let alone her deluded but devoted mother.

Even so, it would be wise not to forget that such a place existed, that real and well-intentioned human beings admired it, that (as I keep pointing out) many of its policies and characteristics (especially concerning secondary education and the family) have since been introduced here. A country, such as ours, which has a Ministry of Justice and a Ministry of Culture, which is increasingly being deserted by its educated professionals, which makes divorce easier than breaking a car-leasing agreement and which is dedicated to separating children from their mothers at the earliest possible opportunity, such a country should be careful about laughing at people who admired such things 40 years ago, but at least knew they were eccentric.

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A well written commentary with factual basis and intelligent conclusions. Well done Peter. Keep up the good work. My Dad, Norman, is somewhere looking down on this and also nodding his head in agreement with you.

So Corbyn was one of the many western faithful who frequented the reserved top floor of the Intourist luxury hotels in all of the Eastern Block capitals. Naturally, the hospitality came at a price ... and, to my knowledge, the complete list of left leaning parliamentarians on ttheir books has never been published. The `Rosenholz Akte´ (Rosewood dossier) was purloined by a Stasi agent during the collapse of the regime, and then sold on. It is generally understood to have ended up in the hands of the CIA ... who now know all about our future leader!

Was there more freedom of speech in the past than nowadays?
I expect that it turned on who you happened to be.
Yes, I expect that common people could say that the king or prime minister were bad men, without any comeback
But would they have cared to say the same about their employer or about the local landowner - a freedom more meaningful?
Also, if you look back further, there was a time when you had to careful what you said about religion.

Thucydides:
" In what way does free speech not exist now (or exist less than it did in 1977)? "

In those years, give or take, political party conferences were still worth live TV coverage: real events, with opposing points of view, real votes, decisions and unscripted consequences. Some of what was freely said to a conference then was the extreme polar opposite of current received opinion now.

Thucydides:
" In what way does free speech not exist now (or exist less than it did in 1977)? "

Then, as long as it was done in a reasonably civil manner a person was pretty much free to (openly) disagree about the Political Establishment's holy cows of political correctness....
Now, a person can only be sure of being free to gush sanctimoniously sycophantic approval of them -- dissent against the assertions of political correctness is increasingly (directly or indirectly) prohibited.

That nuclear weapons saved the west by 'restraining' an aggressive expansionist USSR is at best an unsupported and dubious hypothesis.The USSR showed no obvious appetite for further expansion, indeed they had considerable difficulty in holding on to what they had gained in the war, and ultimately they couldn't. CND was not a 'communist front' but a product of a genuine moral revulsion at the perversion of science to mass murder and also very English. Considering Peter's distaste for the bombing of Dresden his enthusiasm for atomic bombs is strange, but sadly I think explained by, in this case, his 'cold war' ideology overwhelming his innate moral sense.

Yes, I had some second-hand knowledge of the world of the student far-Left, , circa 1970, and remember it well; how accurate this all sounds; and afterwards, in work. I had a far-left, ultra-feminist colleague who ate cold chick peas from a crudely opened tin, during lunch-time union meetings (late-1970s). In the works tea-room, all the talk was about politics (because even your choice of washing powder was a significant political issue). Now, in the tea room, they talk about holiday destinations and tv programmes - it's too dangerous, now, to speak openly about, say, immigration or homosexuality. At least in 1977, free speech still sort-of existed.

I like Hitchens, he is totally outside of all the known political categories, which is very refreshing. But of course this ironically makes him just the sort of eccentric maverick that he describes his communist opponents to be. He is anti-communist, but not one of the dreary tribe of self-righteous professional anti-communists who seem to spend all their time denigrating communism through newspaper columns, books and political platforms. He is also anti late-capitalism, a political and cultural systems that he self-evidently loathes.

His writings exhibit very strong strains of Orwell and Seneca. He has the intelligence and moral courage to say what no professional journalist has the courage to say.

I recall in my radical days that old communists claimed, without a trace of irony or embarrassment, that the difference between the West's and the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenals was that the SU had ' clean bombs', whereas ours were not !
Sounds like the intellectual / mental manipulations of the propaganda peddled by the mass media today, as mentioned by C Morrison. We have more than 'creeping totalitarianism', though. We have brainwashed youngsters for whom political correctness has filled the religious void. PC is just a continuation of the (C) Party line, of course. The Left in London hijacked education and made a great fuss of the young and focused their efforts on them, because the main characteristics of such are lack of experience of the world and of knowledge of history, lack of foresight, impulsiveness and readiness to believe in anything that smacks of idealism. Such types bring about revolutions, always for the sake of those who have a much longer term agenda, of course.

Corbyn is just the man to wrench the British electorate out of it's apathy and misguided trust in dishonest politics that has blighted this nation for decades.
I see no other glimmers of light (left, right or centre) at the end of this sorry tunnel into which we've been shunted.
There is that comforting warmth of honesty about the man.

I'm beginning to think those comments I hear from the press reviewers of the papers are right.
That Jeremy corbyn, will win, they'll wait for him to fail. David Miliband might stand for a seat, in time for the next election.

I do wonder sometimes, about those whoa are supposed to be in charge. First thing I said to my husband when they said it would cost £3 join was there'll be some mischief making, with it being so easy.
with the likes of Russell Brand and Charlotte Church, many in the young generation, they haven't known a time before celebrity.
Outside loos, boiling water from a kettle and a gas mantel still in a rented house, when there was no H. Benefit.
When a tan was real from a bit of olive oil and lemon juice, no fancy salons and it wasn't worth painting your fingernails, unless you had a special"do" which you did yourself from a bottle, because you still washed by hand and you wouldn't have had the money or know what a nail bar was!!
When you didn't know what a celebrity wedding was as your homemade dress, went a bit mouldy at the bottom, with no heat upstairs and a the "do" was a simple reception, with family providing food.
Someone would pay for a chimney sweep t o be outside after the ceremony, for luck....I don't suppose many of them ever ahd to lay a fire, for mum, either!!

It does seem Corbyn is likely to win the leadership vote, leading to the disaster for Labour - the first of your predictions. But I doubt he will win the next general election (if he is still around then), so your second prediction looks pretty remote.

It might, however produce a larger turnout by both sides, as those seeking a 'proper' left wing government and those who don't, go back to the ballot box. Some might think that would mean a return to former democratic traditions, but at least it would reduce the wails from those who describe the parties as 'all the same'.

@John Main As well as pictures of her in her young communist uniform there is also one of her in her birthday suit practising free body culture which the Communists like the Nazis before them were quite keen on.

All this fuss over what was Mrs Merkel's antecedents were whilst Pickles a Conservative ex card carrying Communist gets a free ride . Plus a few others in the other parties . Including quite a few IMG and Common Purpose zealots.
Still I here If elected Jeremy Corbyn will apologise for the Iraq war . No doubt a great comfort to Saddam Hussein, as he struggles against the terrors of the grave . As featured in Islamic lore.
What with Blair apologising for Slavery . I'm still waiting Rome to apologise for invading Britain . Whats all this apologising . If Corbym said he was going to have Blair arrested and tried for war crimes , I'd join the Party just to vote, yes please.
But of course by then Blair would have flown the nest . Have we an extradition treaty with the USA or is it just a one way thing . Pitty East Germany fell . He would be safe there, or not as he case may be.

It's usually forgotten that Tony Benn was a lot less enamoured of the Soviet Union and the GDR than were most of those who went on to become the top brass in Nulabor. Right-wingers often seem to have a rather touching faith in the civilising and moderating effects of power. Such folk still recall Benn and Scargill with a shudder, but are remarkably sanguine about the triumph of a very aggressive form of cultural Marxism in the shape of Nulabor and the Neo-conservative Tory Party. Paradoxically the very success of the Blair-Cams seems to render them intrinsically innocuous in the eyes of many right-wingers, whereas, equally paradoxically, the failure of the Bennites makes their legacy all the more sinister for the same folk.

The early political life of Mrs. Merkel was rooted in the communist GDR. Her Wikipedia entry refers to her position as secretary for agitprop in the Free German Youth (FDJ). Admittedly, she challenges that claim, stating she was actually secretary for culture. Whichever, whilst membership of the FDJ was effectively compulsory, rising to office within it would not have been.

I find it interesting that her past is glossed over. If she was a generation older, similar connections to the Hitler Youth would not allow her such an easy ride.

But to return to the point at hand. Mrs. Merkel started out as a rising star in the communist GDR, and successfully managed the transition to the post-unified German political establishment. She is now the most powerful politician in Europe. Arguably, she did not decide “it was wiser just to give in”, particularly if you view the direction that Europe is taking with misgivings.

@Andrew Pitt There is even a NICE, a straight tribute to C S Lewis' dystopian novel That Hideous Strength although it stands for The National Institute For Clinical Excellence rather than The National Institute For Coordinated Experiments of his novel. Such acronyms go over the heads of the majority although I am sure the Oxbridge civil servants who dream them up think they are being very clever and in on a private joke.

Yes, he does strike me as an old school pamphleteer, although i did see him in an oxford debate in which dan hannan was a main speaker, proposing the downfalls of socialism and the state compared to individual liberty and capitalism. Corbyn was present but was to busy jotting notes, it just seems odd to me that an ex soldier would side with the socialists.

*** "The whole point is that 'USSR' and 'Russia' are not interchangeable descriptions, but two utterly different things, towards which it would be reasonable to have differing policies, and unreasonable to have the same policy." ***

Is former KGB officer (and pretty much president-for-life) Putin really so different in substance from the USSR leadership he served for so long?

***PH: Yes, unequivocally. He has specifically abandoned Marxism Leninism and the Communist Party, as is clear from everything he has said (and done) on the subject. Likewise he has necessarily abandoned the USSR's ideologically-driven attempt to rival the USA as a global power, and restricted his aims to the defence of Russia, and ending its decline and retreat. To fail to see these huge distinctions is to deliberately misunderstand both the modern world and the world during the Cold War. ***

Of course Putin's Russia and the USSR are not identical, but are they so different as to have given up on the expansionism that in the past necessitated MAD to keep in check?

***PH: Yes, beyond doubt. Russia has, abandoned control over vast areas of Central Europe and has neither the power to get them back nor any desire to do so. Has this person not read the many lengthy articles I have posted here on this subject? I am not going to re-run them for him. The blog is indexed, and Google is helpful. ***

And no, of course I do not consider the EU to be innocent in the matter of Ukraine. I do however wonder if the posturing KGB leopard has really changed his spots; or whether he simply has better make-up. And so I suspect that both sides are being economical with the truth.

The Left have been against nuclear weapons. Back in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, they were looking to give up weapons that kept a monster in check (even if 'our' side were hardly ideal). Now they are still doing the same

***On the contrary. I am amazed that this extraordinary paradox has attracted so little attention. Eurocommunist 'New Labour', as infested with Marxists and pacifists as it ever had been, was instantly converted to supporting British nuclear weapons at the precise moment when they became totally useless, i.e. when the GSFG whose advance they were intended to deter had been disbanded forever****

, but we also hear of how Putin is quite different from the USSR leaders......and I look at him and wonder if that is so.

Stories of Mr Corbyn's holidays remind me of Alexei Sayle's biography, "Stalin ate my homework", where he describes his upbringing in a Communist household in Liverpool, with holidays spent behind the Iron Curtain, in solidarity with the workers...

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